Rain

We haven’t posted a Retro in more than two months, so let’s do a throwback to when we used to post Retro videos every Wednesday…

We’ve never hated Wrestlicious. Despite its cheesy setup, overly-enthusiastic studio audience or stereotypical characters because when you break it down to the basics, it had talented indie wrestlers being given time to have matches on an all-women TV wrestling show. We posted a match between Autumn Frost (Jennifer Blake) and Paige Webb (Serena Deeb) two years ago, and we’ve got another today in what was the highest profile match in the show’s short history.

The match in question was for the Wrestlicious crown and featured Felony (Rain) against Glory (Christie Ricci), and took place in May 2010. At the time, we referred to it as the best women’s wrestling match of that week, and we even discussed Rain’s time on the show during our Women Of Wrestling Podcast from back in the day. To see why we enjoyed it so much, have a watch below – but before you do, you can see the Battle Royal which determined which two wrestlers would be vying for the crown.

IWA Mid-South is working on cultivating a new women’s division involving the likes of Angelus Layne, Heidi Lovelace, Jordynne Grace, Mickie Knuckles, Thunderkitty, Randi West and more, though today is the tenth anniversary of what was arguably the peak of the promotion’s original stab at it.

Emanating from Hammond, IN on May 30, 2004, Volcano Girls featured a tournament to crown the first ever NWA Midwest/IWA Mid-South Women’s Champion and was won by Lacey. It was also the blueprint for SHIMMER: Women Athletes which kicked off last year when the booker of the women’s division Dave Prazak and IWA Mid-South promoter Ian Rotten had a falling out. At this point though, their relationship was pretty healthy and culminated in this celebrated show.

IWA Mid-South is working on cultivating a new women’s division involving the likes of Angelus Layne, Heidi Lovelace, Jordynne Grace, Mickie Knuckles, Thunderkitty, Randi West and more, though today is the tenth anniversary of what was arguably the peak of the promotion’s original stab at it.

Emanating from Hammond, IN on May 30, 2004, Volcano Girls featured a tournament to crown the first ever NWA Midwest/IWA Mid-South Women’s Champion and was won by Lacey. It was also the blueprint for SHIMMER: Women Athletes which kicked off last year when the booker of the women’s division Dave Prazak and IWA Mid-South promoter Ian Rotten had a falling out. At this point though, their relationship was pretty healthy and culminated in this celebrated show.

It’s not been an easy three months for Rain. On February 14, she was involved in a car crash where the other driver ran a stop sign and hit her, causing her car to wind up in a ditch and hitting a tree. Considering the damage of the vehicle’s interior and exterior, it could easily have been fatal.

The former SHINE Champion has given us her permission to repost excerpts of her blog detailing the entire incident and her recovery, so here’s her account of what happened immediately after the collision.

They get me to the hospital and I am having SEVERE pain in my abdomen… [t]he nursing team comes and takes me away for scans, x-rays, and for the doc to examine me. They FINALLY give me pain meds, followed by the results. They said I had a tear in my large intestine and internal bleeding. They said they’d have to make small incisions and clean up my insides. I agree and say let’s get this done.

I woke up in SO much pain, but I remember also being really high, thanks morphine. The doctor came in and said things went well and I should be out in a few days… [t]he next morning the doctors were trying to discharge me. One of the doctors thought I was there for pain drugs, but Dr. Tapper was VERY concerned about the pain in my abdomen. He says to me, “I don’t feel comfortable discharging you when you’re in this much pain.” I agreed! He then said, “I’m going to have to cut you wide open to see what’s going on.” My response was, “Well, I’m in pain and you have to do what you have to do.” So, I go in soon after for my second surgery. Continue reading “Rain's recovery continues after car crash”→

It’s not been an easy three months for Rain. On February 14, she was involved in a car crash where the other driver ran a stop sign and hit her, causing her car to wind up in a ditch and hitting a tree. Considering the damage of the vehicle’s interior and exterior, it could easily have been fatal.

The former SHINE Champion has given us her permission to repost excerpts of her blog detailing the entire incident and her recovery, so here’s her account of what happened immediately after the collision.

They get me to the hospital and I am having SEVERE pain in my abdomen… [t]he nursing team comes and takes me away for scans, x-rays, and for the doc to examine me. They FINALLY give me pain meds, followed by the results. They said I had a tear in my large intestine and internal bleeding. They said they’d have to make small incisions and clean up my insides. I agree and say let’s get this done.

I woke up in SO much pain, but I remember also being really high, thanks morphine. The doctor came in and said things went well and I should be out in a few days… [t]he next morning the doctors were trying to discharge me. One of the doctors thought I was there for pain drugs, but Dr. Tapper was VERY concerned about the pain in my abdomen. He says to me, “I don’t feel comfortable discharging you when you’re in this much pain.” I agreed! He then said, “I’m going to have to cut you wide open to see what’s going on.” My response was, “Well, I’m in pain and you have to do what you have to do.” So, I go in soon after for my second surgery. Continue reading “Rain’s recovery continues after car crash”→

The first live show of the WWE Network takes place on Thursday with the first live broadcast of NXT. Dubbed ArRIVAL, it features three matches – one of which sees Paige defend the NXT Women’s Championship against number one contender Emma, in a match which has been a long time coming.

The cheerful Australian earned her crack at the title back in August and then had to defend her right to challenge for the belt by beating Natalya at the start of this year. While carrying on her #EMMAlution in Florida, she also graduated to the main WWE roster by originally appearing in the crowd – antagonising fellow NXT alumni Summer Rae in the process – before taking part in dance-offs and making her in-ring TV debut last night on Raw, defeating Summer with the Emma Lock. While fans who haven’t seen her NXT character evolve are getting used to the newcomer with the awkward dance moves, it seems as if things are going in the right direction.

It could be argued that the NXT Women’s Champion has been ready to make a similar jump for a while. As the sole titleholder – winning the title tournament last June, but the show being broadcast the following month – she has turned back the challenges of Summer Rae and Natalya, though hasn’t wrestled on a show since the end of November. Injury was cited as the reason, though the Wrestling Observer said the layoff was for personal reasons. Thursday’s match will be her first match in more than three months, and in that time, her opponent – and the woman she beat in the tournament final to win the belt in the first place – has caught up with her success. Continue reading “Ringbelles Roundup (25 February 2014) – Paige v Emma, Xandra Bale injured again & Bellatrix 8”→

Eva Marie is a stunning woman. With her great looks and amazing figure, she is a visual asset to WWE’s Divas division. Her presence is a striking one as she stands out from the pack with her pillarbox red hair, coupled with red lipstick framing a beautiful smile. Looks-wise, she is every inch the Diva, with the sort of figure that teenage boys would likely sketch in a schoolbook. Her appeal is also experiencing crossover value as she made such an impression on Total Divas that she graced the pages of Maxim Magazine last August. On paper, Eva Marie has everything it takes to be a star in the women’s division of World Wrestling Entertainment…

Until she steps foot in the ring, it seems.

The 29-year old made her debut at SummerSlam Axxess on August 18 where she and Brie Bella lost to Natalya and Maria Menounos (still undefeated, by the way), but her first TV contest wasn’t until October 7 when she, JoJo and Natalya defeated Aksana, Rosa Mendes & Alicia Fox. She has wrestled 12 matches in total, all of them in tag team contests or battle royals. However, the 13th and most recent contest technically doesn’t exist as even though it was recorded for last week’s episode of SmackDown, it was never broadcast – and probably never will be. Continue reading “Ringbelles Roundup (18 February 2014) – Eva Marie, SHINE Tag Team Title tournament brackets & more”→